An ongoing challenge in the design of vehicle occupant protection systems is to simplify and compact the structure of the system. In systems utilizing gas generators or inflators to actuate inflatable elements of the system, one way of simplifying the structure is to centralize the source of the inflation gases for the various devices. However, it is also desirable to preserve the ability to actuate various elements of the vehicle occupant protection system individually or in various combinations, as needed for a given collision scenario. Thus, an adequate gas supply for each inflatable element should be ensured, while also enabling selective inflation of the inflatable elements.